Presented biennially since September 2001, the Center for Inquiry–Northeast Ohio Humanism Award honors Northeast Ohioans who have played a significant role in helping to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values.

Please join us this year to honor Roni Berenson, an active, outspoken secularist for nearly 60 years and a staunch warrior for social justice, world peace, and nuclear disarmament.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS:

HUMANISM AWARD RECIPIENT

Roni Berenson has fought for social justice, world peace, and secular humanist causes for most of her adult life. She was a freethinker by age 16, after escaping the Holocaust in her native Germany and moving with her parents to Cleveland. She became a member of the American Humanist Association (AHA) in 1954 and helped found the local chapter, Humanist Association of Cleveland East, a few years later. During the 1960s she was an active member of Women Speak Out for Peace and Justice, taking part in numerous local and national marches and demonstrations. She helped establish the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign (now Peace Action) in the early 1980s, and in 1986 led the Chicago-to-Cleveland segment of the L.A.-to-D.C. Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament. A humanist celebrant for more than 20 years, Berenson also continues to be an active member of AHA, CFI, Jewish Secular Society of Greater Cleveland, and Freedom from Religion Foundation. Her nontheistic views can often be found in letters to the editor section of The Plain Dealer and other local papers, a writing campaign she has continued since the early 1960s.

GUEST SPEAKER

Massimo Pigliucci is professor of philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He holds a doctorate in genetics from the University of Ferrara (Italy), a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Connecticut, a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Tennessee, and has done post-doctoral research in evolutionary ecology at Brown University. Pigliucci is the founder and main contributor to the Rationally Speaking blog, host of the blog's podcast, creator of the 5-minute Philosopher YouTube videos, and editor-in-chief of the open-access online journal Philosophy & Theory in Biology. In addition to publishing in many national magazines, he has authored or coauthored nine books, including Denying Evolution, Nonsense on Stilts, and Answers for Aristotle, and he is the coeditor (along with Maarten Boudry) of the August 2013 release Philosophy of Pseudoscience. In 2004 Pigliucci was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

DIRECTIONS:

Interstate 77Take exit 155 and head west on Rockside Rd. Turn left at Summit Park Dr., then make a quick left into the Crowne Plaza parking lot (5300 Rockside Rd.).

Ohio TurnpikeFrom the west, take exit 151 (I-480 East) to exit 20B (I-77 South-Akron). Follow the exit to Rockside Rd./Independence/Seven Hills. Turn right on Rockside Rd., then left at Summit Park Dr., and make a quick left into the Crowne Plaza parking lot (5300 Rockside Rd.).

From the east, take exit 173 (I-77 North) toward Cleveland. Take exit 155 (Rockside Rd. – Independence). Turn left on Rockside Rd. and follow for ¼ mile to Summit Park Dr. Turn left on Summit Park Dr. and make a quick left into the Crowne Plaza parking lot (5300 Rockside Rd.).

Interstate 480From the west, take exit 20B (I-77 South-Akron). Follow the exit to Rockside Rd./Independence/Seven Hills. Turn right on Rockside Rd., then left at Summit Park Dr., and make a quick left into the Crowne Plaza parking lot (5300 Rockside Rd.).

From the east, take exit 20A-20B (I-77 N/I-77 S). Follow the exit to Rockside Rd./Independence/Seven Hills. Turn right on Rockside Rd.,
then left at Summit Park Dr., and make a quick left into the Crowne Plaza parking lot (5300 Rockside Rd.).

ACCOMMODATIONS:

There are many great things to experience in the greater Cleveland/Independence area! Come for the banquet and spend the rest of the weekend exploring.